#vulgate arthuriana

[avalonbards]

despite the (many god so many) flaws it has i do love the post-vulgate because it really added so much detail to existing stories and did a lot of really in-depth digging into so many of the knights as characters.

one of my personal favorites is how it really expands that yes bors is a soft-hearted and gentle guy, but he just plain doesn’t seem to enjoy being around anyone who isn’t part of a very small number of people. and he has an uncanny ability to reduce anyone who angers him enough to snap at them to incoherent tears because bors doesn’t play games. he tears into people with some truly cutting words that they can’t deny at all.

also just funny to note that bors shows anger far more often than lionel or lancelot, his is just restricted almost entirely to emotional damage.

[adhd-merlin]

incredible

[vulgayte]

"Are you winning, son?" "No."

[queer-ragnelle]

—Vulgate Cycle: Lancelot Part II

[cesarescabinet]

Note: This is just for fun and because I'm nosy. I realize the timeline for inspiration is not always simple and can be a bit muddy.

[sickfreaksirkay]

i love the prose merlin because it really places emphasis on the fact that at his core he’s a man who’s just itching to put on a disguise

[susanstohelits]

the description of lancelot in the vulgate is so funny. What do we need to know about this great knight?

Anonymous author, sweating: uhhh his sexy feminine neck. and he had hands like a woman. and an ass that won't quit. these are important details for reasons.

[grail-lifesupport]

He then proceeds to get rescued by Lancelot over three times.

This whole story happens beat for beat in the Vulgate by the way.

[gawrkin]

Sir Galahad, in Battle

[...]

[...]

From Vulgate Cycle -Quest for the Holy Grail

Link to a previous post about Galahad in Battle, in Post-Vulgate

[false-guinevere]

Okay but Mordred’s whole thing with Guinevere in the Vulgate is so interesting to me. Like it’s gone over very quickly but it’s fascinating that he just. Falls in love with her apparently.

And then the Post-Vulgate straight up compares Mordred’s love for her to Lancelot’s??

WILD

It just fascinates me. Mordred is usurping the throne but also his attempt to marry Guinevere is seemingly just from a genuine desire to I guess. I don’t know I just think it’s neat. I need to know more about these hangouts during Mordred’s regency that caused Mordred to fall so deeply in love. What did they talk about? Did Guinevere consider them friends? I have so many questions.

[avalonbards]

underappreciated element of the lady of the lake is how much she loves her children. she loves them so dearly.

vulgate lancelot part 1

[adhd-merlin]

percival: sorry but them's the rules

arthur the less: your rules are stupid

[vulgayte]

Lionel and Bors only being a year apart in age feels wrong

[queer-ragnelle]

Vulgate: Lancelot Part IV | More quotes at Arthuriana Daily

[wolf-tail]

It's been 800 years and I STILL have beef with whoever is responsible for writing the Vulgate cycle for having the AUDACITY to bring Galahad into the mythos. I'm someone who normally likes Mary Sue type characters, but there comes a LIMIT

[arthurian-texts]

When the youth [Mordred] saw [Gawain's] wounds, he turned away, grieving as bitterly as any man could ever grieve [...] He went to another chamber and fell down upon a bed and wept and cried and wrung his hands and tore all his clothes. [...] [Agravain] found the youth tearing his hair and his clothing. And when the youth saw his lord [Agravain] before him, he neither moved nor left off his grieving. "What is this, you bastard," said the lord, "what are you grieving about? Don't you see that I have been healed?" "Indeed," he replied, "I don't care, because for that good I see a greater ill." "And what is that?" asked the knight. "Ah, noble man," he replied, "in there they have mortally wounded Sir Gawain, your brother and mine." "Gawain?" he exclaimed. And thereupon his grief was so great that he fainted.

-Vulgate Lancelot, c. 1220, trans. Samuel N. Rosenberg and Carleton W. Carroll

They pushed and shoved at one another and Mordred fell backwards from the force of Gawain’s spear and landed on his shoulders, badly wounded. Sir Gawain leapt onto the man and seized him by the head. His grief was ready for this moment but so, unfortunately, was destiny. He pulled out a short knife from a silver sheath intending to stab Mordred in the throat with it; but the cut never occurred. His hand slipped and slid on the shiny chainmail as Mordred slyly shot a hand under the man on top and heaved him off, then drew a knife of his own and stabbed Gawain through a gap in his helmet, through his head and up into his brain. Sir Gawain was gone, that good man of arms. [...] "He was a giant amongst men, that’s for sure," Sir Mordred [said]. "This was the good Sir Gawain, the most considerate, the most gracious man ever to live under God’s Earth, the strongest with weapons, the happiest in battle and the noblest and most courteous in the king’s hall. He was openly praised as having the bravery of a lion and if you had known him, sir king, in the land where he lived, his wisdom, his knighthood, his accomplishments, his leadership, his courtesy, his courage, his fighting skills, then you would lament his death for the rest of your life." This traitor allowed a tear to trickle down his cheeks. Then he turned around and said no more but went away weeping, cursing the day that destiny had dealt him such a blow.

-Alliterative Morte Arthure, c. 1400, trans. Richard Scott-Robinson

I love weaving together strands from different Arthurian versions, because you can find incredible parallels like this. In the Vulgate Cycle Lancelot, we see young Mordred (in his pre-villain days) breaking down in terror at the thought of losing his older brother, so grief-stricken that he "fell down upon a bed and wept and cried and wrung his hands and tore all his clothes."

And yet in an ironic twist, in the Alliterative Morte Arthure it's Mordred himself who ends up killing Gawain at the end of their story. Yet we still see the same love and hero-worship for his brother that the younger Vulgate Mordred had, and like his younger self, Morte Arthure Mordred breaks down in tears at Gawain's death (no longer a prospect but now a reality), despite having been its cause. He "went away weeping, cursing the day that destiny had dealt him such a blow" - filled with grief and remorse at what he's done, but too late to undo it.